Questions for the government

The government has failed to negotiate an exit that people want, uniting Remain and Leave voters against their so called Withdrawal Agreement. There were many opportunities along the way to negotiate something better which they failed to take.

1 Why did the government surrender early on over the issue of negotiating the Withdrawal and the future partnership questions together? That was the clear promise in the Conservative Manifesto which the PM ditched for no good reason.

2. When the issue of money was first raised the UK had a good counter that it did not owe them most of what they demanded. Why did the UK surrender on the money when there is no Treaty base requiring them to do so? Why didn’t they follow the logic of their own mantra, “Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed”, and demand things in return for offering any ex gratia payments?

3. Why when the issue of the Northern Irish border was first raised, didn’t the government explain how this VAT/Excise/currency/anti terrorism border works today, and explain there was no need to impose new barriers at the border to slow down trade in future? Why didn’t the UK say it would not itself be imposing new barriers at the border, and advise the EU to make a similar declaration?

4. Why didn’t the government ever get round to tabling a comprehensive free trade deal? We know from official EU statements they were receptive to that, but could not negotiate one if the UK refused to table one.

5. When Parliament voted for the Brady compromise, a substantial concession by the Eurosceptics who voted for it, why did the government fail to table any of those proposals for dealing with the border issue in its talks with the EU?

6. Why now the EU Trade Commissioner has repeated the EU’s willingness to have a comprehensive free trade agreement if we just leave will the government still not get on and table one and leave as originally promised? This after all was the MALTHOUSE 2 proposal under the Brady compromise, with considerable support across Conservative MPs.

7. Why did the government abandon the pledge that No deal is better than a bad deal?

8. Why did the government tear up its promise that we would leave on 29 March 2019?

I – and others – offered good advice throughout these negotiations urging the government to be much firmer, to hold to its positions that nothing is agreed until everything is agreed and no deal is better than a bad deal to maximise the UK’s negotiating leverage. Instead the government at every turn ignored this good advice and sought to weaken or undermine the UK position by making needless concessions too early. The EU soon realised that as long as they refused to budge the UK would surrender on all the things the EU wanted to insist on.

It is because the negotiations have been so poor from the UK side that we now must just leave without signing the Withdrawal Treaty. The public understood only too clearly how the UK had to argue its corner and dig in over what we thought was fair. Only the government seemed unable to grasp the basics of how to negotiate.

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“Lock” is a Cameronism. Under our constitution, there is no such thing. Parliament may not bind future Parliaments.

If May enacts something claiming to do this, the next general election will be a race between the remain parties (including Tories and Labour) and the Brexit Party, which will promise to retract the remainers’ surrender. I wouldn’t expect to see the Tories do well in that circumstance.

It always concerned me why Traitor May would give away intelligence security and defense to EU for nothing in return or be part of any alleged negotiation. Why she would do this after the 2016 referendum and under the knowledge the people voted to leave to be an idependent nation. This should have raised alarmed bales with all of you. When two very senior former defense and intelligence officers felt the need to write their concerns in national newspapers over her giving away our defense to the authority of the EU you know something must be wrong.

Michale St George writes a very good article in Conservative Woman today:

“The details were spelt out in chilling detail by Briefings for Brexit’s Professor Gwythian Prins in a speech to the Heritage Foundation. It looks beyond dispute that Cabinet Office officials presenting to EU diplomats with May’s imprimatur confirmed a direct intention to stay under EU authority in defence, via the EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy.”

Why is your treacherous Tory govt and civil service determined to give away our intelligence, security and defense to the EU for nothing even after we were meant to leave rather than side with our NATO ally that has generously provided such help in all such matters? Hence why the dishonest KitKat policy must be subject of a full blown judicial inquiry with custodial punishment for ministers and civil servants alike.

Lancaster speech was clear about leave. No need for two more speeches to dilute the first.
Davis was negotiating Traitor May acted behind his back with another plan. The EU must have thought Christmas arrived. They must have been in on the deceit. No negotiation collusion and treason. A full inquiry required for those involved. Why would Davis be involved in dishonest KitKat policy? Who were these civil servants working for and what plan were they working towards? She was dishonest and underhand. Johnson claimed he was willfully misled by Irish backstop proposal. A deliberate lie to trick him I suggest.

May is the problem. She is the front to Hammond Clarke etc. they never intended to leave. Ken Clarke would not vote for servitude plan if it was truly leaving. A bit of a clue.

Brady claimed he abstained last week to oust her. The 1334 councillors have him and those who want her to remain to blame. Volunteers who are also supporters, association members and activists deliberately lost to save Traitor May. The loss was catastrophic.

Labour was no near as bad and recoverable. Supporters clear Cooper and co do not understand democracy if it scratched their eyes! What does that say about Ken Clarke and Letwin who went across the house to get their support! May let this happen without any action as she did with Rudd, Gauke and Greg Clarke.

The EU Tory fanatics think more if the EU than your party or our country.

To fiddle around with the words of Karl Marx, there is a spectre hanging over the Conservative party. The Conservative party, the oldest political party in the UK, says it has 124,000 members. The Brexit party, which is not even a year old, says it has 85,000 subscribing supporters. If the Tories want to go the same way as Lloyd-George’s Liberals, they really need to cling onto to the inept leadership and a legislative programme that only appeals to tiny minorities.

Your answer shows everything that has gone wrong with Brexit. In early 2016, for you, the EU was the baddie – the source of all of your problems. This was never true, of course, you had fallen for 30 years of deception. But we all understand why you believed it.

But still believing in Brexit in 2019 requires you to identify many more baddies. Brexit now only makes sense if everyone else is immoral. Look at all the ‘traitors’ and ‘collaborators’ that you now have to identify for your Brexit to still be considered a good idea.

The UK has never been in a position to demand anything from the EU, this has never been a negotiation between equals. The UK is voluntarily leaving the EU, it is not being thrown out or made redundant; there is no golden parachute available for leavers.

All outstanding accounts must be settled to confirm closure on the EU side of the Article 50 process; and, before any further economic/trade agreement(s) can be contemplated.

Take a look at the institutions in Germany between 1933 and 1945 to see what a hold totalitarianism has on a nation. The same goes for the USSR. We in the UK are loaded with ‘baddies’ as you call them. Just try to get on in life if you aren’t of that pro-EU mind-set! The way is virtually barred.

And our universities just keep churning out more of them like little politically correct clones. Save for a few high-profiles notables, it has been a long time since I heard a university graduate voicing an opinion other than the pro-EU message which was drilled into them by their biased socialist lecturers. Thank God for free-thinkers. Whilst we still have them, we still have a chance to turn things around and leave the EU!

Not to have diversity of thought is to consign ourselves to cultural oblivion. But then being of an open mind, you would know all about that.

Oh my word you are so dim. There is only ONE problem, that problem is that parliament is run by a majority of remainers and they all keep coming up with fictitious reasons why we can’t leave and trade on WTO terms. Meanwhile a majority and growing of the electorate want exactly that , leave and trade on WTO terms.

No Andy , the problem is definitely you and people like you who refuse to accept a democratic vote

Oh Andy. How short-sighted you are. And with such a short memory. Do you remember (if you were old enough then, of course) what it said on the referendum ballot paper?
Leave the EU (no qualifications or conditions)
Remain in the the EU (no qualifications or conditions)

Even the execrable Mrs May said ”Leave means Leave”. Who can say that any more clearly?

Perhaps you could consider these alternatives before you post any more ill-informed comments.

PS Remainer – never a comment without an insult. Well done for staying true to form.

Andy …We did put it to the electorate, have you no memory? You ignore 17.4m voters who were convinced enough, at whatever risk was to come that they wanted out. 16m voted to stay, which would include numbers of voters who saw risk and were not brave….
You do realise that if we did do all that misery all over again, we would have to have a 3 year interval and repeat the process if it were 1.1 , best of 3 required.

The problem, Andy, is a eurofederast elite which will come up with any sort of high-minded cant and low machination to thwart the democratically-declared will of the majority who wish to regain the right to self-determination and full sovereignty wielded through an accountable parliament, not excepting the useful idiots who inexpertly troll pro-Leave blogs.

May reminds me of the lyrics of that song made famous by the O’Jays called ‘Backstabbers’.

‘They smile in your face, all the time they want to take your place, the back stabbers.’

She smiles at the camera and looks so honest and saintly when she assures everyone she is going to see this through and give the people what they voted for. But her record tells a different story entirely.

Yet still there are people who swallow her BS. No wonder there are so many victims of fraud in the UK when they are so gullible they continue to accept what she says without question and fawn over her.

Boris was right, the Tories could turn this around, but not with May as leader, and I venture, not with so many remainers in the parliamentary Conservative party. This subterfuge has gone on way too long and the rest of us who can’t be kidded any longer have had enough of both.

JR’s article on 2nd May quotes the EU Trade Commissioner – ““If the UK leaves fully the EU and becomes a third country, it will still be a European country, it will still be our friend, it will still be an ally and a very important trading partner, so obviously we will have to try to find as comprehensive a trade agreement as possible with that country. But obviously it will not be 100% seamless because they are leaving the common market. Obviously it is in our interest as well as the UK’s to have a trade agreement ”

The UK is not much weaker but the majority of politicians and civil servants are clearly not up to the challenge.

Right now, that is definitely open to debate. The EU is a diseased zombie, stumbling on mindlessly because it doesn’t know what else to do, while chunks of it rot from the inside out and are a constant drain on the healthier parts, until the whole will inevitably collapse. All the while, the maggots in Brussels are feasting.

(Apologies if that description puts anyone off their Bank Holiday Brunch, but I do feel it’s rather apt.)

Britain, conversely, is the fifth largest economy in the world, the second largest contributor to the “EU Experiment”, and by far the healthiest part overall in terms of economy, employment, wage growth and international investment. Indeed, the UK leaving the EU would have the equivalent effect of the nineteen smallest member states all leaving at exactly the same time. That’s how big an impact Brexit will have on the EU.

Sorry, but all this talk about us being a virtual nonentity just gets my goat. It’s utter codswallop, and we’ll do just fine without the EU shackles throttling us, thank you very much.

Never a truer word spoken John. It had been decided even before the vote that we would never leave. Parliament and Mrs May in particular have been underhanded and pro EU from the start. This farce has gone on long enough and we must leave now.

True, but they are sticking to Tory policy since the 1960’s. They took us in on a lie, invented the Single Market, steamrollered Maastricht through Parliament without troubling the people on a major change in Treaty and have been subservient to every whim of the EU ever since. Had it not been for Gordon Brown, our currency would now be the Euro. The Tories simply are the party of the EU (driven by big business) and won’t allow a clean break. At best there is a giant fudge coming to keep us tied in. We can only hope now that Farage will make it public that he is in for changing the face of Parliament and warn the EU that whatever they try to enforce on us against our interests in the future, he will if he wins a General Election, rescind and that May’s word is just as worthless to them as it is to us.

I keep hearing senior politicians say we should never have had a referendum on the UK’s membership of the European Union.

That is to admit they knew there was a danger the outcome wouldn’t suit them, so best not to give the stupid people a democratic say.

The Maastricht treaty was a case in point, so was Lisbon treaty (the EU constitution). And the type of people who would conspire to deny us are democratic rights are still around and being handsomely remunerated!

They should have died out, and if not, be driven out. I like to make my own mind up and have a democratic say, not be told what is going to happen, especially by blinkered gravy-trainers I can beat in an argument!

What actually kept us out of the EURO was the (predictable) failure of the ERM that John Major took us into as chancellor (and the failure of Thatcher to stop him). I suppose we should be (indirectly) grateful for Major’s gross incompetence. May is going to bury the party for good this time, unless she is culled now.

Sir James Goldsmith deserves credit too and first before Brown, as without his Referendum Party the other parties would not all have been forced to offer a referendum as well to stop the new parties success. So it was Labour knowing they had to offer and win a referendum, that helped keep us out and not just Brown doing the right thing for once.
The BBC still seems to hate Sir James, make fun of him and denigrate his input, but making oneself redundant by getting others to achieve your aim is always a good way to win.

When you have a duffer in charge, who ‘knows’ she is right and surrounds herself only with those who are prepared to confirm her misbeliefs, and really wants to remain in the EU, the answers to all your points are quite obvious.

The reason is clear. It is and always has been the intent of May and those advisors closest to her to frustrate Brexit. It became obvious at the notorious Chequers meeting. It continues with her article in the Mail on Sunday and the Stewart interview by Sophie Ridge yesterday. May has done untold damage to the British national interest. In this she has been aided and abetted by the majority of Conservative MPs who refused to sack her when they had the opportunity last December. This will be remembered for a long time.

Exactly. It is very clear that we must now just leave and negotiate after leaving. Signing the £39 billion straight jacket WA is not leaving in any sense. Indeed it even worse than remain. It would almost certainly destroy the Conservative party in the process too.

It is however encouraging how badly Labour performed. Surely the voters are not daft enough to want a Corbyn/Mc Donnall/SNP trip to Venezuela are they.

The destruction of the Conservatives will surely be far worse in the EU elections. After all Conservative councillors were, in the main, the best on offer to the electorate. Local government will be far worse still for the loss of 1300+ of them. Well done May, please go.

No. May and Ollie think we’re all stupid. Don’t you remember how clever the Civil Serpents thought “Ollie” was running rings around Mr Davis when she was writing the second white paper behind his back ?

The person in charge was absolutely clearly clueless about any sort of UK negotiation strategy, engaged others who were also clueless, and undermined and ignored any of those who had some experience to bring to the table.

In short Our Prime minister was unfit for the task in question, whilst a number of Remain Mp’s from all Parties also visited the EU, to offer advice to the other side on the best way to deliberately frustrate the UK and its Referendum result.

The answer to all 8 questions is surely because the government does not want to leave the EU and is coming up with a pseudo-Brexit to keep the UK subservient to Brussels while paying for the privilege.

I have to agree. I said at the beginning of this farce there is a lack of political will for us to leave, I don’t know whether May et al thought they could pull the wool over our eyes with her Brino or what, but it isn’t working. The only thing that comes to mind is treason, for that is what it is and not just by this government but those past too as they are wedded to a political ideal. If the EU is so great and good for us why are they not shouting the benefits from the roof tops.

The answer to all those questions is simple. They never intended to LEAVE, so why bother.

Your leader put the Civil Service in charge and ran a separate negotiating team from Number 10. David Davis MP wasted his and everybody elses time with negotiations that the PM and the EU knew would amount to nothing. ie She deliberately undermined one of her own colleagues, his department and the nation. For that and that alone she should have been booted out.

The Tories are mad. They could go down in history as one of the best political parties ever by giving us back our independence, yet they seem to be hell-bent on being the worst by denying it. This is crass by anyone’s measure.

Made all the worse still, by giving us a person who is an inveterate liar and a cheat, and then not getting rid once she’d been found out.

How sad it is that I now find myself at odds with something I once believed in, but that is the price of their duplicity. One cannot be expected to show blind loyalty to something that consistently goes against our core values.

It’s like having an old Labrador dog that is coming to the end of its natural life. The inevitable end is rapidly approaching, but it isn’t quite dead yet and we are undecided if we should do the kindest thing and put it out of its misery.

At the same time, we are being offered a young and energetic dog that is eager to please and can do things the old dog can’t – like being truthful with the people!

Indeed. This betrayal has never been put to her by the msm, why? Why hasn’t she been challenged on this in Parliament?
Why hasn’t there been calls for an enquiry on May’s behaviour, particularly as it has been suggested she came up with the non issue Irish border problem! Her actions have been treasonous and like Blair with his Iraq war, should be held to account for her actions.

A law banning people whose work is worth less than this figure from working or even learning to work. Another great idea from the highest taxes for 70 years (and dire public services too) Philip Hammond. It should do wonders to damage the economy, export jobs, damage our ability to compete and increase UK unemployment rates wonderfully.

It does sound like another attempted bribe from Hammond.I appreciate you won’t agree with this, but the efficient and effective way to act on income is via UBI. Such a policy is more easily managed with immigration control, in the same way that progressive trade policy is more viable outside a CU.

A universal basic income could work if well structured but it is not without some problems. We certainly do not want to ban people or deter people from working or even learning to work with a minimum wage and certainly not a high one. It would be insane. But then we suffer under the economic illiterate, tax to death Hammond.

Gives a lie to Remainers like Hammond and Greg Clarke saying their main aim is to give business certainty when they arbitrarily increase the biggest fixed cost to a business, people.

Keenly priced long term contracts, especially in outsourcing, supply chains potentially go into loss etc all need to be renegotiated, inventories repriced or costs absorbed etc

Another nail in the high street coffin where I guess shop workers are on a minimum, the NHS already struggling at current cost/income levels etc and manufacturing/call centres where more work will be sent abroad.

So who pays, we do in increased prices and people made redundant. Just shows that for all their rubbish about being pro business in the leave negotiations, they are in reality, anti business.

Can Milton Friedman explain just what is the benefit of having a job that does not pay enough to cover living expenses, let alone a few treats? Henry Ford realised early on that if he paid his workers enough, he would have a ready stream of customers for his products. Was Ford a failure? A low wage economy remains a low economy. Even China is now coming round to that and has a growing middle class (they are now among our best visitors).

“Can Milton Friedman explain just what is the benefit of having a job that does not pay enough to cover living expenses, let alone a few treats?”

Being able to get a reference or training and therefore a foot on the employment ladder towards a better job. For those on benefits or disability who cannot work fulltime, a little additional income (a correctly structured benefits system would not make recipents lose out for working or volunteering). For others, a chance to get subsidised qualifications. And in the saddest case, the chance to get any income at all, for those people who aren’t eligible for benefits but aren’t competitive in the job market at £9 an hour – and there are quite a few in that situation.

There’s also the independence and contributing or producing something of worth that a job brings, as well as getting people into the habit of working which can be difficult after long periods out.

Incompetence evident from day 1.
Remember the security sharing issue which when the horrified EU objected the UK rapidly withdrew. And that was just the start.
Perhaps the problem is the Conservative party constitution which has given TM a free role to decide what she wants without recourse to anybody else.
All pretty disgusting really.

My conclusion is that May and her civil service team did not wish to Leave the EU. The so called negotiation was a smoke screen to remain. I cannot envisage any other intention when the end result was the totally unacceptable WA that resulted.

Having said that there can only be one conclusion. May and her Machiavellian scheming must be removed this week. Moves to consort with a Marxist labour party to push the WA through Parliament will have a catastrophic effect on the conservative party electorially. May, having slagged off the current labour party at every opportunity in Parliament as being unfit to govern is now wooing them just to thwart the democratic decision of the UK electorate. A despicable course of action that renders her unfit for office. My instruction to the 1922 committee is effect her removal by any means available and do it quickly. Replace her with a politician acceptable to the Conservative party at large in the country. The opinions of of the party in the HoC have long rendered themselves unfit to make such a decision. Many have become complicit in May’s dishonesty.

We need a judicial review into Brexit. Who led the campaign, who funded it, who made the promised and told the lies. You will not like the findings. No doubt the judges will be considered traitors too.

There were indeed many lies told before and after the referendum, here’s a few examples:
1. If the UK voted to leave, there will have to be an emergency budget
2. There are no plans for an EU Army
3. Voting leave (not actually leaving) will result in a large increase in unemployment
4. The UK will leave the EU on March 29
5. No deal is better than a bad deal (May’s WA with its repeated rejections by parliament is a bad deal).

Let’s have a judicial review into remain too then Andy. That government inspired tax-payer funded largely pro-EU biased leaflet that was shoved through the door of every household in the country might take some explaining for a start!

Then we have the bias in the media, television broadcasting, universities, schools………..the list is a long one. And I wonder about foreign nationals funding remain campaigns. Time we did some digging so that we might discover the truth and enlighten the British people. I am sure they would be pleased to know.

Mrs May is not stupid. She knows the whole country hates her deal, she knows there are more simple solutions to the so-called problems out there. The answer, it seems to me, is simple. Mrs May was put in place for one job, and one job only: to stop Brexit, whilst pretending to deliver.

Something for which she, and her husband, will no doubt be very well rewarded, by the globalista.

Sometimes,when a question seems to have a range of possible and complicated answers, it’s the simplest one which is correct.

Well said JM. I am amazed still to see lots of posts here foisting terms such as ‘clueless’ and ‘deluded’ on to our PM. She is nothing of the sort. For anyone who has followed the machinations of the last several years it should be clear that she is part of a carefully orchestrated campaign to reverse the 2016 result. The utter refusal of our PM to stand down and her consorting with the Labour party to force through the WA, no matter what the damage to her own party, says a great deal about the lengths Remain will go keep us in the EU.

James,
Mrs May is not stupid. She knows the whole country hates her deal, she knows there are more simple solutions to the so-called problems out there.

Well you have to doubt the worldliness of someone who pays £1000 for a pair of trousers, but who am I to comment, I luxuriate in my daughter’s cast offs; however stupid she isn’t.
There is a reason for can kicking. There is a reason why the police (et al) kick the doors down in the wee hours.
You can’t talk to someone who isn’t listening, and Brussels doesn’t listen to anyone.
Before we negotiate our withdrawl the 27 have to understand in €uro terms what Brexit means. The have to feel the pain of their UK Companies in a limbo universe. They need Farage, Rees-Mogg & Widdicombe joining their voices to the AfD’s Alice Weidel.
17.4 million aren’t going away. The EU is fermenting. It will either Federalise, in which case the 17.4 will increase as we see the £ being replaced by the € and Euro economics and laws dominate our lives or the Nation States will fight back. Nothing can happen until after the European Elections and allegiances settle.
Keep kicking that can Mrs. May.

My bullshit detector went into high gear after her Lancaster House speech, but it must have had a duff battery before it, unless I had the volume turned down because I missed the warning signs.

The Tories wanted someone with mild manners, and a sincere-sounding voice to put the message over that we would indeed be leaving the European Union. But make no mistake, this is not a quietly determined woman setting out to deliver what the people had demanded, she had a completely different pro-EU agenda. This is a Siren, luring all those foolish enough to listen, onto the rocks of adversity in what she sees as a greater cause and to hell with the Conservative party.

I hate it when I see Tory MPs smiling as they do so frequently in the commons chamber and elsewhere. They haven’t got much to smile about. The fact that they do smile at all shows they do not give this matter sufficient weight, just like the passengers of the Titanic playing around with bits of ice after the vessel had struck and was fatally damaged. Only yet more electoral disasters at May’s hand will convince them, but by then I expect it will be too late.

The problem is that Sedwell and Robbins do not want us to leave, and are determined to ensure that, if we do, there is no ‘Brexit success’. So they want an agreement that denies us the benefits of leaving, and turns ‘brexit’ into non voting membership. This lets them say thy they were right all along to oppose leaving.

Davis, Baker, and Raab were all in danger of doing a competent job, so the process was taken from them and put in the hands of unaccountable but highly partisan civil servants who seem to dislike democracy.

A free trade agreement is where we need to end up, but we can only save Brexit if the WA us abandoned. The problem with the WA, aside from billions we do t owe (article 50 makes it clear that there are no financial obligations after the 2 year leaving process) is that it is an enforceable treaty under international law, and imposes obligations and restrictions on the UK that would bind future parliaments. Almost anything is better. Delay. Remain (for now), EEA

If it gets through rest assured most people out here will vote for the Party that promises to rescind this unlawful WA. The people have already instructed Parliament to leave the EU, the Customs union, the single market, no ECJ jurisdiction, no military project etc. It does not have any mandate and therefore Brexit Party will be elected.

Article 50 does not anticipate a Withdrawal Agreement. No doubt because Withdrawal is a unilateral act, which cannot be opposed by the EU bloc, and which does not require agreement/consent by the EU bloc.

Article 50 anticipates a final deal which governs the final relationship viz a viz the ex member state and the EU bloc, coming effective the very day that the ex member state has left the EU bloc.

What did you expect when Calamity May and Oily Robbins a confirmed Eurofederalist we’re doing the so called negotiations. The result was never going to be any different.
The answer to all your above points is get rid of May, she is and has always been the problem.

Better economists than me are predicting dire consequences if we leave without some form of relationship with the EEA.

Just assuming that it will be OK – as Nigel Farage does among others – is one point of view. But there are others – I understand within parliament as well – who are really scared of it.
Nobody seems to be discussing it properly though – just trotting out mantras.
Personally I have not idea where I stand because it is way over my head. Can you help?

Reply They are wrong to predict big problems. They were also wrong about the ERM, the Euro and the banking crisis, which I got right.

Surely, the point is that nothing is risk-free. The role of government, or any executive, is to decide the objectives (in this case, decided by the people) and seek ways to mitigate its risks, whilst still delivering the results.

It’s quite extraordinary that we have an entire Parliament set in EU aspic by Analysis Paralysis, unable to see that with the return of sovereignty they will have the powers they need to mitigate the worst of their fears. In the unlikely event more powers are needed, they will have the ability to annoint themselves.

I guarantee, however, that most of their “predictions” will prove to be solely in their collective minds.

The people voted to leave. If these respected economists had any integrity they would research and advise on (1) how to mitigate the transition and (2) how to take the best opportunities available from sovereignty (though best will be normative).

May, Hammond, their institutional masters, the beneficiaries of the status quo, have all concentrated on stopping the people’s will, not enabling the future for them. The behaviour is simply disgusting.

In future years case studies will be written of this negotiation, which will highlight how the UK govt fell into all the fundamental traps and so got a terrible deal. It demonstrates how bending over backwards to accommodate the party across the table doesn’t make a deal more likely it makes it less likely. the EU, sensing the UK’s weakness, has gone on pushing until the deal is so bad The UK parliament will just have to say no.

Richard, the study that would be most significant would be how easy it is for a heavily financed malign force to move into a country and take it over gradually and “covertly” (the step by step process so favoured by the EU), getting control over the levers of power and control over freedom of speech until the point of no return is reached.

Or . . . with all these red lines and the advice of virtually the whole outside world (which unlike the UK hadn’t substituted expert advice by just politicians’ advice), the UK government realised it had overreached and wasn’t in such a strong negotiation position as it had been told by brexiteers.

Nonsense. With a annual trade deficit of over £80 billion me thinks trade and friendship is all we want. A managed WTO agreement will do. Our economy is equivalent to the 19 smaller Nations in the EU, much larger than the Dutch and we can buy our flowers, light bulbs and tv’s elsewhere Mr EU. People here are already changing their purchases based on the hostility shown by Messrs Tusk, Barnier, Drunker and Verhofstadt. Ask Germany how its going with its recent exports here!
There is a reaction that is equal and opposite when we are threatened.

@Timaction:
An interesting upside down perspective: the UK wants a divorce and thus the EU is considered hostile! And that is followed by self-inflating (“we’re really big, you know!”) and threats (“we’ll do our shopping somewhere else”).
All the EU side has done is following the rules which were written together (the author of article 50 is a Brit, called Lord Kerr) and explain what possibilities remained with respect to these chosen (post-referendum) UK red lines.
The current UK inability to agree with itself may soon also be blamed on the EU???

No the blame lies squarely with Treason May and her failed attempts to keep us in with her awful Withdrawal Agreement. Repeated lies and refusal to take us out under managed WTO.
Have you not listened to Tusk, Barnier and Drunker? They have repeatedly threatened us, so of course it will impact peoples buying habits.
The Brexit Party now leads in the polls and will be a force to reckon with in the very near future!
Besides, what has it got to do with you?

Illogical actions usually mean that there is a covert agenda.
Clearly the EU is cared more about than the Conservative Party.
( Didn’t a political party fall on its sword similarly in Ireland over Lisbon Treaty? That was very much like all this …surprising Brexit ministers were not more wary.with such history??)
Anyway..obviously NO intention ever of leaving…lies, lies and more lies. Treason Treaty that will enmesh us even more tightly.
Has everyone taken leave of their senses?? We are now taking part in the EU elections!!!
Leave? Not a snowball’s….!!

Yes indeed. Ollie said as much in his journey talk overheard in the cafe and the “kitcat Civil Serpents” caught but never disciplined on their hiding our contributions! Our tax payer money. Wonder why?
May signing us up to EU military behind the scenes but never brought to account!
She has to go this week or there will be trouble.

It should be clear by now that May is an EU stooge, and that the majority of the CPC is complicit in keeping her in power so that, against the peoples’ wishes, we remain in the EU.

You are well aware that this is the problem.
You have so much to offer the country (which will be fully compromised and diluted whilst you remain loyal to this shower that have abandoned you, abandoned democracy, and abandoned all principle).
You have a great opportunity to be one of the principal policy-makers, and key players, in the Brexit Party (or a Real Tory party).
After a break-away, you might be able to re-unite as the Conservative Party some time in the future (Liberal Democrats, as an example), once Brexit has been delivered and succeeded for a few years – if you still wanted to, and that’s a big ‘if’.
You have the opportunity to go down in history as ‘the Saviour of the Nation’ (though I accept that self-interest is not one of your driving forces) .

It is time to throw caution to the wind and grasp the nettle.
This is your moment, Sir John, (and too, other true Brexiteers).
Good luck.

Reply I stood as a Conservative and wish to keep to the pledges made by my party i n that election. It is my party too, and I and like minded MPs need to bring it back to its principles and promises.

Commendable loyalty, Sir John – but it should not be at the expense of your Country.

If May passes her WA, or passes Corbyn’s Customs Union, are you really going to stay with the Conservative Party?

If Labour brings about a ‘Vote of Confidence’ are you really going to vote to keep May and her cronies in power?

If there is a General Election, and May is your leader (or a Remainer; with a manifesto to leave the EU on her WA, or similar), are you still going to stay with the Conservative Party?

Loyalty only goes so far before becoming a millstone – a millstone that will damage our country.

The time has come the Walrus said…

Reply I will pursue our exit from the EU as clearly stated by me before and after the referendum in the way I think is best to achieve it. I was right in staying with the Conservatives to secure the referendum in the first place. Now it needs this government to see it through.

Apologies if my comments come across as ungrateful. For many years, and with total dedication, you have been the leading light on this issue, and have been right in staying with the Conservatives (the centre of power) to secure the referendum. Your judgement has been sound, and we owe you a great debt for where we are, and most recently for holding this Government to account, preventing May’s WA passing.

You are right in that ‘it needs this government to see it through’. However, there seems little prospect of this happening. This is the trouble. As a result, power, and the opportunity to see it through will move elsewhere in my opinion. And I would like you to move with this ‘power’ so that your talents and dedication are not wasted – relegated to ‘political oblivion’ as Steve Baker writes today in Conservative Home.

Sir John….I fully understand your ethics here, and stated in your reply. However, I am almost sure that you and others are fighting within certain rules, including misplaced loyalty, when your opponent is the nearest thing to a dictator who is prepared to stop at nothing to do what she wants. History tells us that dictators come to a sticky end, and sometimes take innocents with them. Beware!

Your party is breaking the pledges it made. By staying as part of the party you are part of what the party is doing. You can’t just disassociate yourself. If you and others left and formed an Independent Conservative Group, then May and Co would finally actually realise that their present course of action is going to break the party.

Reply to reply: I respect your instincts, Sir John. During such a turbulent period, some semblance of stability is vital. More schism will likely make a bad situation worse. I hope you will be vindicated, but some things are outwith our control. Even so, to stand true to what you believe is non-negotiable – once, a celebrated British trait.
PS: FYI – I have signed the petition to repeal the infamous Cooper-Letwin Act: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/255223

Very reasonable questions which have at their core one answer. Mrs May and the senior Civil Service advisers always wanted to remain very close to the EU and have done everything in their power to scupper the UK having a meaningful Brexit.

A permanent customs union arrangement coupled with following EU single market regulations would be considered a win for Mrs May and her advisers.

The guilty should dread what in due course the UnBrexit Activities Committee is going to make of ” Instead the government at every turn ignored this good advice and sought to weaken or undermine the UK position by making needless concessions too early” .

The principal answer to all your questions is “incompetence”; the “negotiating team” as fronted by Mrs may was was simply unfit for purpose.
However, watching the events pan out – from Lancaster House thru’ the initial announcements then Chequers, the WA Surrender Doc, cancelling of “no deal”, aborting Mar 29, extensions to 31.10, bringing in Labour & CU, discussion of 2nd Ref, it’s obvious that this all ran to a plan which ends inevitably in cancellation of Art 50.
Mrs May is a traitor, conspiring with our enemies to thwart the will of the people. She should be impeached, tried and given Life – in the Tower.

We all know why. The Conservative Government has a useless leader they cannot get rid of, running an equally useless wimpish Cabinet.
Oh, how she changes her tune and twists her words to match, its like listening to Jerry Adams.
“I stand by the references I have made in the past that no deal is better than a bad deal, but I actually happen to think that we have a good deal. (You and your lap dogs are on your own there Dearie) When I first made that reference, I was talking in the abstract — it was at Lancaster House. We now are no longer talking in the abstract; we are talking against the background of a negotiated deal, hard fought, that I believe is a good deal for the United Kingdom.( SO why did Parliament defeat it three times – no answer) That is why I say — and it remains the Government’s position — that we will continue to work to leave with a deal.”( the WA is not a deal as anyone who has read it or a synopsis will know, its a large payment to enter into a limbo state that may or maybe not result in a future relationship with the EU sometime in the future).
No the signal from election results did not mean get on with your Withdrawal Agreement Mrs May.
You continue to misread everything. It means a good 70% of the Conservative electorate want to see the back of you and a WTO Brexit.
Do you think the BBC is biased? Watch

There are too many ‘why’s’ and ‘when’s’, and it’s all a bit late now, the clock is ticking.

To leave without the WA is an option- yes, but what then? WTO rules? even Pascal Lamy ex head of the WTO said recently that this would be ruinous for Britain, certainly in the short to medium term, and I don’t see Liam Fox coming up with any reasonable proposals for new trade deals yet that would in any way compensate for a break with the EU. And, in any case the EU is not going to enter new FTA talks with us until the terms of the WA already agreed are settled- so time to get real- ratify the WA and then let’s get started with fresh talks about the future arrangements.

Review of this weeks social media comments show a large number of people have started to say that it’s not just May but the cabinet who are traitors. It appears the arguments for the demise of the Conservative Party are laying down roots.

There are also quite a lot of comments pointing at The 1922 as evidence that the “Governance of Party is irredeemable” and sending the Party “into the backwoods”.

It appears opinion is now *justifying* the end of the Conservative Party and not just Mrs May instead of just saying they won’t vote for the Conservatives.

I believe you are right, and although Steve Baker (ERG) has written a good article on ConsHome today, I believe he just doesn’t quite realise how close the “end of the Conservatives” could be. He, and others, are still apparently talking/writing about taking out the backstop and Brady and Malthouse tweakings. On that I think Baker is wrong.

The public are far beyond that (and the EU have always said that they won’t reopen the WA). The whole WA is anathema now to very many Leave voters, if comments in the blogosphere and Press, plus huge support for the BP are anything to go by.

The WA is not the only thing that represents anathema to them. Many more things/people are despised and regarded as damnable:May herself, her “cell” of mandarins and others, her entire Cabinet, her Remainer MPs, plus those turncoat Brexiter MPs who ended up supporting the WA.

The scale of this is huge and now will not be solved by a tweak here and there, or going back to Brussels for more negotiation, or going Brady or Malthouse. Those days are far past, in my view. What a disgrace also to pay £39 billion pounds for May’s treachery.

May has to go, and immediately. A Brexiteer has to be put in place to effect Brexit swiftly, by leaving with no negotiated deal, but WTO instead. That would save the country but not necessarily the Conservative Party.

Both Mrs Mays and her latest lapdog, Rory Stewart’s comments that the votes against her were as a result of the public’s frustrations with the failure to achieve Brexit (sub text because of ‘rogue’ elements in her own party) is the usual self serving blame someone else rubbish showing them to continue to be in complete denial.

We have the same view as you, it is the not the failure to get it through Parliament that is the problem, it is ‘bending the knee’ to the EU from day one and totally crumbling to its demands, not representing us robustly and asking us to accept an agreement that is ‘withdrawal’ in name only.

As an aside Rory Stewart, from failure as a prisons minister to a top job, is showing himself up as a lightweight uninformed berk.

‘As an aside Rory Stewart, from failure as a prisons minister to a top job, is showing himself up as a lightweight uninformed berk.’

Good to know I’m not the only one who thinks that, but again, his appointment like so many others has its own commentary. She wants place-people, not free-thinkers. Sock puppets who fawn over her and do as she commands. It all boils down to her intransigence and as such, her unsuitability to govern.

The answer is the same for all those questions. From the very start May and most of government and parliament intended to sabotage Brexit against the will of the British people. Anybody that continues to support them in their blatantly obvious intent is guilty too. No sort of convoluted argument or evasion changes that.

The PM and those negotiators working on the Withdrawal Agreement were not useless , bad negotiators or clueless in any way. We had/ have a remainer PM, a majority remainer cabinet, majority remainer Parliament, avidly remainer civil service, fanatical remainer EU, and a dark “under the radar” establishment all conspiring to overturn democracy. It just doesn’t suit their agenda, and it’s democracy which has been systematically strangled by these appalling people.
These are the same people who will criticise other countries for being run by Military Dictators, despots, police states, one part states etc whilst brushing over their own gross hypocrisy.

She is not incompetent but has willingly taken part in, and ruthlessly effected, a meticulously planned operation to sabotage Brexit, which has been based on deception, dishonesty, duplicity and, in my view, completely amoral behaviour.

I have followed your diary for years. I have always been impressed by your common sense and the questions you pose. But nobody amongst May and her acolytes ever responds to your reasonable questions. You are dealing with a brick wall.
No doubt today we will see pictures of Mrs May coming out of church and we will be given the impression that such a person must have principles and be basically honest. I have come to a different conclusion.
We think that things cannot get worse, that no more concessions can be made, no more ‘red lines’ can be crossed. But May seems impervious to criticism that her WA is totally flawed – a sell out to the EU.
She and her tunnel vision is leading us to disaster and I fear that there is little you can do. Would that it were not so.

Because the national spirit that built and maintained the British Empire has been destroyed by more than 40 years of increasing control by the unelected EU Commission. The leaders are often derided as ‘unelected bureaucrats’ but it is worse than that. The Junckers and Tusks are failed politicians in their own countries, given huge power and prestige in the EU without the tiresome necessity to be elected by anybody.

Our civil service is nothing more than a branch of the EU Commission. Our largely Remain politicians love hobnobbing with 27 others on the European stage and are scared to death of having to focus their limited talents on making their own country more successful.

Choosing a weak Remain PM like May was a guaranteed disaster from day one. She appears to have no imagination whatsoever and therefore no ability to see what an independent UK could achieve after a true Brexit.

Alternatively it is well past the time for some Leave MPs to quit the CP, resign their seats and stand in the by-elections on Brexit. You cannot go on forever thinking this woman knows what she is doing and it will work out, she is politically bonkers.

Why ask the Leave MPs to leave their parties and then stand in byelections on Brexit, when the Remain MPs who joined the Chuk-TIGs saw no need to? Surely it should be by-elections for both or for neither.

My personal belief is that if an MP leaves their party, there should be a by-election, but it seems certain MPs disagree.

You know the answers to all of these questions. As to point 6, Ms Malmstroem spoke under the usual condition of staying within the EU consensus and what she meant was that an FTA is available if/when the UK’s depareture is of the “negotiated” type, not the “no deal”. Of course an FTA would be available if the UK and Ireland can agree to scrap the GFA, or create exceptions that would facilitate an EU compliant border.

Its like Game of Thrones this story .It started out a fantasy vaguely based on an alternative reality. By the end we have magic money trees, magic negotiations, magic borders and we are all supposed to forget what the characters said a year or two ago.
” Easiest negotiation ever”.. for example

The facts enumerated in this post put the lie to the notion that the UK has been
outwitted by the EU in these negotiations. I would also ask the Government why it has
made a no-deal exit harder by shelving the necessary preparations. I am, of course,
minded to regard all of these questions as rhetorical. What does one do if all they
yield is rhetorical answers?

The answer is simple. The Govt (and the main parties in Parliament) do not want to leave. From the start it has been treated as a problem that needs to be ‘managed away’ & swept under the carpet. May has maintained a 73-75% remainer Cabinet to do so.

Amongst the questions for the Govt is why the Irish & British HMRC’s were ‘suddenly’ prevented from talking to one another? They both say that there is no issue.
Why did your leader allow negotiations to be openly undermined by MPs, including those her own party, without censure?

There are also questions for Parliament & your party.
Why has the Govt’s contempt of Parliament not yet been satisfied?
Where are the challenges to the first SI ‘extension’ & the obvious financial implications without a finance Bill & the other unconstitutional & unlawful activities ‘? Sir Bill Cash who mentioned it, & your letters, are being completely ignored.
Why has the Party allowed it to get this far? 3 years!
It’s time to accept the reality that the Party is, like the EU, not what you ‘think’ it is, or would like it to be, & seems to have passed the point of ‘reform from within’ working. Like a failing business, it’s time for harsh decisions.

I have written many times before that Mrs May’s mission is to keep the UK in the EU one way or another. What keeps her going and refusing to quit, in the face of what most people would regard as chaos, adversity and humiliation, is the knowledge that she has not yet completed her mission but is on track to do so. Losses in local elections and the destruction of the Conservative party is just acceptable collateral damage on the road to satisfying her masters in Brussels and Berlin.

1. Ask Brexiteer David Davis. He turned up on day 1 of talks unprepared and made this concession.

2. See above.

3. Because they are not the same. VAT / currency etc can be dealt with at the point of sale. The whole point of your Brexit – apparently – is to slash regulation which will make many UK products substandard and illegal in the EU.

4. We are part of the most substantial and advanced free trade arrangement in the world with the EU. Margaret Thatcher’s single market and the customs union. Apparently you voted to leave these.

5. The Brady compromise – alternative arrangements – is not a real thing. It is like voting for a unicorn. You also actually have to come up with plans for what those alternative arrangement are, they have to be realistic and the EU has to agree. You have not done this.

6. You can have free trade agreement with the EU. But free trade is not frictionless trade. You only get the frictionless bit with the customs union and single market. All Brexiteers have to do is decide where to place their border. On the island of Ireland or down the Irish Sea – then you can your free trade agreement.

7. It was not a pledge it was a lie. And Mrs May might be a liar but she is not stupid.

8. It didn’t. The government tried to leave on March 29 but Parliament stopped it. And it was the Brexiteers in Parliament who were to blame. They refused to back Brexit.

there is a lot of guff talked about frictionless trade. much of the trade coming into and out of the UK (& other countries) under WTO rules is effectively frictionless – take a trip to Felixstowe to see it in action. Equally there are filings required for EU trade in many instances – meaning I suppose that it isn’t 100% ‘frictionless’. The Australia-NZ FTA offers an example of a comprehensive FTA giving free – and virtually frictionless -trade. I agree with your points 1 & 2. David Davis it seems made the concession of ordering of the talks. Perhaps he said nothing is agreed until everything is agreed but that bit got ignored by Mrs May. But May must take the blame.

Mrs. May and her EU-supporters in the Conservative Party have put EU membership above absolutely everything else.

Mrs. May’s surrender WA treaty with no lawful exit and her collusion with the Chinese over 5G, HS2 and Hinkley C makes me believe that she is as big a threat, if not an even a bigger threat, to the UK’s sovereignty, democracy, security and prosperity than even Mr. Corbyn with all his previous history.

I agree and it would not surprise me if, in the end, May turned out to be a plant managed by the EU. When Home Sec she undermined the police and border forces, which might justifiably be said to have caused an increase in crime and illegal immigration and then produced (or caused to be produced) a WA which, if implemented would make the UK a slave state ruled by the EU. It cannot be that May is simply incompetent; I conclude that all along she has planned the downfall of both he Conservative party and the existence of the UK as an independent nation. She is well on the way to achieving her objectives, not least because of the ineffective house of cards we call Parliament.

All your questions Sir John can be summed up with one brutal fact. Mrs May, her handlers (whoever they are) and her civil servants never had any intention that we should leave the EU in any meaningful way. Included in the betrayal are the whole of her Cabinet including the so called leavers. They all now ‘own’ the WA and PD.

What is amazing is that back benches and the ERG have not taken drastic action, even to the point of bringing down the Government, the situation is that serious with a PM who is quite obviously prepared to see her Party destroyed rather than recognise democracy.

Why do the ERG and back benches allow themselves and their Party to be led (to paraphrase Dylan Thomas) ‘gently into that good night’?

No point having a GE until the Brexit Party is ready to field candidates. Otherwise there’s no one for leavers to vote for. Both main parties have the candidate selections sewn up and will only put forward Remainers. Wait until after the UE before striking then defect en masse.

“This has been a Party Political Broadcast on behalf of The Brexit Party”! 😀

All joking aside, this piece covers just about everything Nigel Farage has highlighted and similarly queried on his LBC radio talk show for many, many months now (well, up until having to relinquish that daily spot in order to lead and campaign for The Brexit Party, that is).

All considered, it’s really little surprise that the Brexit Party hit 30% in a recent poll, with Labour on 21% and the Conservatives trailing dismally at 13%.

The Brexit Party has candidates from the Left too. They can field them in secure Labour constituencies and put Brexit Labour on the posters
Same in secure Conservative areas with MPs who are lying Remainers.

As asked for by Clegg, Major and Heseltine in the German press. As worked on by Blair and Campbell
As provided by the Commission and adopted by May and her chosen EU loyal Robbins, Sedwill and cabinet colleagues. Traitors all. Their passports, computers and phones should be confiscated, during investigations

All these shenanigans eh, who would have thought the once staid, steadfast, traditional Tory party – the natural party of good governance and law and order – could ever stoop so low?

I’ll tell you now though, mere words won’t hurt them, they couldn’t care less. The only thing they understand is a wipe-out via the ballot box. In 1997, the people jumped right out of the frying pan and into the fire in their desperation to get rid of the Tories. There was no real anti-EU alternative.

Theresa May and her chum Ollie negotiated the WA. As is obvious now, they were bullied and completely outmaneuvered by Macron and the Gang of Four. The EU obtained everything they wanted in these negotiations, it appears we got the Irish backstop and little else in return.

We will now have the added humiliation of having to fight the European Elections at the end of the month where the Brext Party will win many seats – the Conservative Party will in all probability not be represented in their new parliament

History will not be kind to Theresa May, she will not go down as one of our great prime ministers. Sir Graham Brady should follow IDS advice, change the rules and sack her.

The EU side, particularly Junker, found it hard not to laugh when speaking about the so-called ‘negotiations’ with Theresa May’s side. To laugh would have been un-statesman like, so for the sake of May’s credibility (such that it is), they held it all in. Oh to have been a fly on the wall to see them air their views in private when they could finally let it all out!

But it is clear to all by now, that the UK ‘team’ were completely unsuitable for the task, whether because of a lack of negotiating skill, the pursuance of a pro-EU agenda by the back door, or as is likely, a combination of both.

We can do better than this. Most British people could. I certainly could! Junker wouldn’t be smiling if he’d been negotiating with me, he’d be in a sweat and reaching for his liquid comfort!

Questions for the voters in England and Wales in the elections for the European Parliament:

Which is more important, UK’s sovereignty, or the UK’s internal politics?

– if UK’s sovereignty is more important, then do you want to Remain (either by revoking Art 50 or accepting Mays deal) or leave with no deal?
. if Remain, do you want a small state (vote Conservative) or socialism (vote Change UK)
. if Leave, do you want a small state (vote Brexit Party) or socialism (vote Labour)

– if UK’s internal politics is more important, do you want a small state or socialism?
. if small state, do you want to Remain (vote Conservative) or Leave (vote Brexit Party)
. if socialism, do you want to Remain (vote Change UK) or Leave (vote Labour)

There are four options: four parties. Forget about Libdem, Green and UKIP except as negative protest votes

It really doesn’t help if one of our leading exponents also agrees with the opposition that Leave voters were attracted to anti-*immigrant* *populists* in his latest book.

Remainers justify the subversion of our democratic win entirely on the basis that we are wicked and can be ignored.

There is a vast difference between *anti-immigrant* and *anti-open borders policy*. The first is despicable and illegal, the second perfectly reasonable and sensible. That even you don’t seem to get this is not a small problem.

Remainers are perfectly capable of hatred themselves, if we are going down those lines but you omitted this in that chapter of your book.

English people have bent over backwards over immigration. Where is your praise for this ?

So now we’ve hit the hard reset button. The mainstreams do not understand us because they do not listen to us. They kick us partly because we don’t do violence and smash the place up.

Note they kick us because they can, because they reside in ivory towers, and they have ‘ security ‘. Ultimate unaccountability – but those days are numbered. They’ll stand no chance against an enraged nation.

Theresa May is right to want Brexit settled. I would argue, quite rightly, she is right to ignore party boundaries because Brexit was not voted for along those lines. If 100% of Labour voted for Brexit and 25% of Conservatives voted for Brexit she would be right to push ahead with Brexit against her parties wishes. It would be a difficult take but one that would mark any PM out for greatness. It is only when you think of this scenario do you understand her task.

Where she and the other remain voters are absolutely wrong is to believe that Brexit includes a customs union. David Cameron made it clear the customs union, EU court and Free movement were to be removed.

Her responsibility is to honour the referendum. She cannot fight the weight of democracy. The voters will have their way come the next General Election.

“she is right to ignore party boundaries because Brexit was not voted for along those lines”

Oh yes it was. We elected the conservatives to government and voted in a referendum provided by them. We expected them to honour the result, not invite those we did not elect to help overturn the result.

The reason we have this farce is because those who lost the referendum were allowed to scream like a bunch of bad loser cry babies and got their own way.

“She cannot fight the weight of democracy. The voters will have their way come the next General Election.”

Firstly, Javelin may I point out the all too obvious – democracy is dead.

Secondly brexit is dead. What matters now is revenge for betrayal. To that end yes I agree the next general election will be the people’s. We need to wipe LIB LAB and CON out of political existence – then force the brexit we voted for.

Not sure what the answer is. I tend towards the view that May is an utter incompetent with none of the skills necessary for negotiation or anything else who was so reliant on the civil service she was easily manipulated by the Remain Ultras who run it. Quite why she was prepared to destroy the Conservative party in the process is a puzzle though.

Re your last sentence, RG, the end justifies the means for the almost fanatical europhile politicians. It is a Marxist/Communist trait, which is not surprising as the whole EU construct is apparently based on that ideology. It led Gorbachev to make the statement that he could not understand why Europe seemed intent on developing another Soviet Union in Europe with the EU, having been so determined to bring down the original Soviet bloc.

“Only the government seemed unable to grasp the basics of how to negotiate”.
What a devastatingly damning indictment of May and her Government !

It’s what anyone with any experience of negotiating to buy a bag of sweets has know for three years. In fifty years time this whole, sad saga will be used in Secondary Schools, Colleges and Business Schools as the perfect example of how not to conduct negotiations.

Many of us posting here new that it was all going to end very badly as soon as May agreed to Brussels insistence on the phasing of the negotiations. David Davis must have known that this would put us on the back foot from day one and I cannot believe he supported the decision to go along with it. I can’t imagine the issue even made it to the Cabinet table.

Had I been Brexit Secretary I would have resigned rather than accept Phasing.
It’s inevitably been all downhill from that point, culminating with the Chequers debacle where May bounced the Cabinet into going along with a deeply flawed deal negotiated in secret by her Sherpa Robbins, behind the back of her own Brexit Secretary.

History will record that May was 75% responsible for this disaster. The other 25% is down to Cabinet Members who failed to get to grips and reign in a weak and incompetent Prime Minister who was and remains totally out of her depth.

Conservative MPs are not immune from some share of the responsibility for failing to remove her when they had the chance.

The answer to your questions can be found in the Establishment and Theresa May’s devotion to the EU.

I gather Mr. Brady, Chairman of the 1922 Committee, is going to see the PM tomorrow to ask her to set out a timetable for her departure. What has gone wrong with the Conservative Party? Has she not caused enough damage yet? Must the whole ‘shebang’ come crashing down before those with responsibility take decisive action?

The newly-appointed Secretary of State for DFID, Mr. Rory Stewart, has announced that he would like to follow Theresa May as the next leader of the Conservative Party. He goes on to say that a split in the very party that he would like to lead would be worth it to get any form of Brexit through.

With a statement of keen insight and profundity such as this, there is no wonder the Conservative Party is where it is.

Sir John,
The answer to your question is quite simple. It all comes down to that wicked and evil woman May. She is an unprincipled liar and not fit to hold the office she does, nor to sit in Parliament. And yet there she sits leading the Conservative Party. While that evil woman is leader I will never vote for the party again, and if that means a raving Marxist wins power so be it. Get rid of her now. It is the only hope to try and salvage anything from the mess SHE and her Civil servants have created. I would see her rot in The Tower.

Your analysis contrasts clarity with the blurred ‘confusion of face’ of an effete, grossly misguided establishment. Everyone agrees no mortal could ‘make it up’, which tells its own story for those who have eyes to see it. God is speaking to our nation, sadly, now so far from His ways.

This is a level headed, irrefutable and damning analysis. Imagine the verdict of historians once the documentation is released in 30 years time.
We must leave unilaterally and with no deal in place and propose a free trade deal the next day. We will need an individual capable of walking and breathing at the same time, to do this; ie NOT MAY!

Mrs May is now 1 month past her oft sound-bite sell-by date of 29th April 2019.
You can stretch people but must not tear them is an invisible rule you find out later.
May was given the poison chalice but decided to turn tables on voters.
After losing key advisors she went to Brussels and sympathised with them in secret one-to-one meetings just like Blair has done under the Diplomacy umbrella excuse.

The key assumption for Brexit needed a strong critic of EU, a “True Brit” just as Barnier was a tough uncompromising EU Bureaucrat appointed by Junker whom Cameron did not approve of.
The Tory Party made a critical error over-promoting Remainer May in similar fashion to when MPs over-promoted Speaker Bercow.
That is the key starting point – the erroneous assumption by Conservatives that integrity doesn’t apply to them. ” Never assume anything as it can make an Ass of U and Me.
If in doubt check her out becomes by Chuck her out.

Sorry but May is not qualified to be leader by her hidden agenda negotiating in bad faith.

The answer is that this government is imcompetent. However every government since Maastricht has displayed similar incompetence when dealing with the EU and Brussels has indeed learnt that they can ask for the moon and get it from the idiot class that inhabits westminster.

I suspect, or at least hope that this withdrawal agreement will go down in history as an example of asking for too much. While it was not the EU’s job to look after the UK’sinterests they should have considered if this agreement would pass.

But that goes to the very reason why we must leave, the EU were unable to understand the problem of their political demands, nor to value the vast taxes they requested.

For that reason only a WTO exit will do, the competence and trust of the PM’s team has been shattered. Opportunities to do a deal later will appear, especially if EU marketshare in UK is threatened by new competition. The country made their disapproval known by a 1300 seat loss. Things will only get worse after passing a WA, but I’d be surprised if Corbyn fell into the trap of taking responsibility for it.

We wait now for the birth of the brexit party at the EU elections, whoever succeeds May will actually need to be a competent leader as delay only increases the difficulties. 52% of the population voted for change, a significant portion of remainers want democracy, none of them are likely to vote conservative unless brexit is delivered.

These questions have a common answer: the Prime Minister and the Treasury have been determined from the start to keep us tied as closely a possible to the EU for ever.
It has now become obvious why Mrs May was prepared to resort to the gutter to swap Stewart for Williamson: Stewart says that a deal with Labour is worth a split Conservative party. The proper home for both of them is Change UK and they should take Hammond with them.

During her highly secretive negotiations, she should have ‘Trumpated’ Brussels with, “These are our demands; we might compromise around the edges, but if you don’t give us what we want, we’ll break off talks and leave without a deal, and by the by, you won’t see a penny!”

It is about democracy, the repudiation of the social contract, the manipulation of the people by the Establishment, the use of hate to deprive people of a voice, the smearing of a political group as racist in order to deny them both voice and vote.

Thank you John for once again putting the case brilliantly .There are indeed questions that must be addressed at some time by the elusive PM and her advisers One thing we do know that she was involved in every decision ,every broken promise ,often without consultation with her Cabinet
The Cabinet must also accept some responsibility for failing to be bold in challenging many of these decisions
The final insult and the clear intention to have business as usual is the championing of Rory
Stewart for leadership candidate, who appears as a ventriloquist dummy spouting PMTMs praise and support for her actions .He is of course a former colleague of Mark Sidwill in Afghanistan !His promotion was clearly an attempt by interested parties to place their candidate in the public eye .

All that you say has been apparent for some time. As has the fact that May is a plant for the maniac remainers. It is now being reported that May is cooking up a 2nd referendum with Labour and other ‘concessions’ to add to the awful WA.

The question is, what are you prepared to do for your country? We are now in desperate times, which call for desperate measures. And things are about to get worse.

Are you prepared to vote against the government on all matters (not that are any of importance outside of Brexit left in this session)?
Are you prepared to resign the whip (stating that this is a temporary measure until May has gone) and try to take the DUP with you – or enough of the ERG that there is no majority?

Are you prepared to vote against the government in a confidence vote? This seems extreme, but you can let it be known that after that vote, you will vote with the Conservatives for a new leader in a confidence vote (this avoids a GE) as long as that person is clearly committed to Brexit (i.e. not Rudd, Hammond, Stewart, Gauke etc).

Are you prepared to defect to the Brexit Party as a last resort if things turn really sour?

Your country needs you. You must find a way to end this parliamentary session and prevent a new Queen’s Speech being voted through. I believe that one of the above things has to happen, however extreme they would appear in ‘normal times’.

A comprehensive free trade agreement to include agriculture would ensure that our farming industry would not recover because it would find itself still subject to the CAP through prices and quotas. What is the point of freeing our farmers to produce all the milk we need if the CAP can create an EU wide surplus to undermine our domestic production? It may be simpler to offer free trade in manufactures and components because we don’t have an indigenous car industry to lose; that was killed off decades ago. It is possible to manufacture new products competitively to replace what has been destroyed by membership of the EU but cows can’t be reprogrammed to making energy drinks.

What is amazing is that, in the face of May’s continual lies and deceit, Mr Redwood still chooses to sit as a Conservative MP. Leave, move across the benches, and sit as the Brexit Party’s first MP.

I am actually looking forward to the destruction of the Conservative Party. Decades of history crushed under the feet of me and a hundred thousand others who support just leaving with no deal then negotiating an FTA. This is going to be fun; breaking the labcon duopoly and ending the careers of hundreds of entitled remainer MPs.

“I am actually looking forward to the destruction of the Conservative Party”

Me too ! I’m keen to see the look on their faces when the shock hits them between the eyes, of the fact that they radicalised an entire nation.

I’ve always voted conservative, but never again. I’d like to see every last one of them humiliated and destroyed. I think the whole lot, lib and lab included should be put under arrest pending prosecution for attempting to overthrow the state, and for fraud.

But they plan to leave in place a legal arrangement with the EU from which there is no escape. The individuals will go off and get undeserved positions elsewhere, or just change parties; the party names don’t matter. The questions are (i) how to stop the WA and follow on legislation, (ii) how to stop the individuals involved being in any future influential position – political or otherwise, (iii) how to change the electoral system, the executive, the legislature and the unelected chamber, (iv) how to clean the Civil Service?

So I heard from TV that the Royal baby has been born. Let me make this crystal clear, I said immediately “It will weigh 8Ibs 5 oz.”
It turns out He weighs 7Ibs 4oz.
BUT, I knew I would be incorrect.Therefore, I AM psychic.

Re the Irish Border (item 3). Isn’t the idea of Brexit the ability of the UK to impose external tariffs? If we (ever) do a trade agreement with Mr Trump it might well contain adjustments to tariffs on agricultural products.

This will lead to administrative problems at that border and encourage smuggling by organised crime gangs etc. Some Brexiteers suggest technology could help. Well you have been around long enough to know that UK government IT projects are at best late and over-budget and at worst hopeless.

Another of Mrs May’s errors were her red lines. They gave her no room to manoeuvre. She could have found out what Leavers disliked most and Remainers like most and tried to fashion an agreement to take some sort of majority with her.

Another blunder was triggering Article 50 in March 2017 and the UK cabinet not even having its own position agreed until after mid 2018.

A 2017 General Election fought by two main parties with referendum respect was never really probed enough for any substance was another problem . The main events were Mrs May not going on TV and care for the elderly.

Just from memory, the answer to Q.1 is that Barnier and the EC cheekily demanded that they would set aside the clear meaning of Art. 50 (that the future relationship must be taken into account when negotiating any leaving arrangements) and invented a completely new one, whereby the EC would simply make demands on EU citizens living in the UK, the NI border, and large payments – and grant nothing in return.
This was a virtual declaration of war, and it was the point at which the UK team should have firmly refused, walked away, and prepared thoroughly for a WTO exit. Davis must attract some of the blame for not resisting May’s/Robbins’s acquiescence with this ridiculous and implacably hostile demand, that left the UK team for months pointlessly ‘negotiating’ nitpicking details of a priviliged status for EU immigrants with no quid pro quo for British subjects living in the 27.
Every step of the way showed EU intransigence that could clearly only be countered by a UK refusal to accept such an illegal abuse of a treaty. Trump was right – we should sue the EU under international law.

As always, GregH (etc. etc. etc. etc.), you don’t ‘get’ English punctuation: and regrettably, an education in written English is not something you can now obtain so late in life after years of idleness – Grandpa! :-))

Fully agreed: I’m looking forward to the BBC4 programme at 9.00 p.m. on Wednesday when they have detailed access to Guy Verhofstadt’s thoughts. It should confirm how he and Michel Barnier ran rings round our negotiators.

It is good that you have set out all these questions because even if the culprits stay silent, the rest of us are reminded of the catalogue of catastrophe that is the May regime. It is all too easy over the three years to forget some of it.

This was not incompetence, John.
This was a wicked conspiracy by our Prime Minister, working hand in glove with the civil service against the British people.
I know you won’t like the term, John, but your questions on this post point to only one conclusion.
Our Prime Minister, and the heads of our civil service, are traitors.
They have radicalised this country, by campaigning openly against the British interest.
The only solution is the political annihilation of two parties I have once campaigned for / the Tory and Labour parties that are currently barely distinguishable.

Like the majority of commenters here today, I too believe Mrs May was put into place to thwart Brexit whilst pretending to deliver.

However, I think the swift emergence and resulting popularity of the Brexit Party may have put a small spanner in the works; also because of sites such as yours Mr Redwood, people can exchange information and ideas and are probably better informed than most MPs.

An anonymous civil servant writing on Briefings for Brexit (under the pseudonym Caroline Bell) has written several article predicting what was coming next in the proceedings, and sadly, has mostly been correct!

She/he says the Labour talks are a smokescreen, and that very soon a referendum will get support, as the Labour talks collapse.

Mr Redwood, I believe your questions must be asked, even though they’re likely to be ignored. I also think they need to be published as far and wide as possible, because the more information that is mainstream the better! I believe a lot of MPs have not questioned enough for themselves and have just believed the lies of TM and her cabal.

The real influence really should come from within Parliament to unseat the PM before she rams the WA through Parliament ASAP. However, seeing her reaction following the local elections, perhaps she’s not bothered if the Conservatives fall – collateral damage?

I for one don’t believe Mrs May was put in place to thwart Brexit.
Her Lancaster House Speech was a very welcome contribution and full of good intentions and was supported by all Brexiteers. I believe at that time she was sincere in wanting to deliver exactly what she said, red lines and all.

Unfortunately her own sheer incompetence and ignorance of even the most basic principles of negotiations, compounded by her determination to keep very tight personal control of the whole process has brought us to this disastrous outcome, or rather lack of one.

By insisting that her Civil Servant sherpa, Robbins, conducted secretive talks ( I won’t call them negotiations) behind the back of successive Brexit Secretaries means that she has to bear almost all of the responsibility for a worse Foreign Policy failure even than Suez.

The final bit of responsibility lies with a Cabinet that failed to reign in the Prime Minister and take charge of the situation after the infamous Chequers meeting.

The most interesting question of all, is why is Mrs May. The worst Prime Minister in our history, being kept in power?

The only conclusion is they the Parliamentary Tory party has a majority of MPs in it that want to overturn Brexit, but are too cowardly to say it, so they are sitting quietly whilst Thereason destroys Brexit, destroys our country and installs a Marxist to follow her.

She is burning the oil wells to make sure we can’t leave again and the parliamentary Tory party are conspiring with her.

Pertinent points and questions. A useful summary.
How frustrating it must be for you, JR, when your sensible advice is ignored and unwanted.
Clearly we have the wrong people in government, and strangely there have not yet been enough back bench Tory MPs wanting a change of leadership – yet the country is crying out for change.

I see that the cost of the European Parliament elections, the ones whose results May is conspiring to annul so as to hide her ignominious defeat, have now risen by a further £50 million. So that’s £159 million of the taxpayers’ hard-earned down the drain already. And still 17 days to go before they even take place.

PS The extra £50m is “contingency” costs in case parties have to be reimbursed for the cost of fielding candidates who never get to take up their seats in the European Parliament.
An outcome May is aiming at. No price can be too high to cover her party’s shame and ignominy – as long as it’s paid by the taxpayer.
This will not be forgotten.

Sir John. You keep asking the questions we are all asking. It makes no difference. How many times you ask. Mrs May won’t listen. Parliament is full of liars. Our only hope is to slaughter the Tories at the general election and vote for the Brexit party.

The key question is Question 1. Why did we not insist on following what Article 50 says and take into account the future relationship?
David Davis said on BBC that the PM directed him to make the concession. Since then, people have said that is incorrect.
So, what is the truth of this? Did DD make this concession early on, or was he directed to do so?

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About John Redwood

John Redwood won a free place at Kent College, Canterbury, and graduated from Magdalen College Oxford. He is a Distinguished fellow of All Souls, Oxford. A businessman by background, he has set up an investment management business, was both executive and non executive chairman of a quoted industrial PLC, and chaired a manufacturing company with factories in Birmingham, Chicago, India and China. He is the MP for Wokingham, first elected in 1987.